


We Go... Together

by Jahaliel



Series: The Broken and Holy Songs [4]
Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Massive Game Spoilers, Multi, Nemo just wanted a holiday, made up first names for in-game characters, not everyone dies AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-07-26 00:13:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16208630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jahaliel/pseuds/Jahaliel
Summary: Fate decided to strand its Chosen - Nemo d’Vidas - in a completely different world than she’s used to.  This was not her idea of a “relaxing low-stress holiday” which is what she’d asked the mirrors for when she left Vidas.Now stranded on the odd planet 4546B with an anti-magical atmosphere diminishing her powers Nemo needs to survive and to get off this planet.  Fortunately she’s not alone.





	1. Last One Standing

**Author's Note:**

> this is a long-fic and currently in progress. updates will be sporadic though i'm going to try for weekly-ish. Currently i'm several chapters ahead but my record with long fics is not great. So heads up that this may become a perma-WIP. Mature rating is for later chapters.
> 
> I MEAN IT ABOUT THE SPOILERS. LIKE EVEN THIS FIRST CHAPTER HAS SPOILERS - PLEASE CONSIDER PLAYING THE GAME FIRST!

There's only two of them on the island.  
No-one else is coming. 

They are about to head back out, to seek their end in the water when a message comes through with a GPS signal attached [i survived. come to the beacon. supplies here. LifePod 5]. The CTO looks at the Commander, raising a challenging eyebrow and together they head out towards the beacon, narrowly avoiding some hostile wildlife on the way. They arrive at LifePod 5 - bobbing on the surface in the shallows, relatively close to the downed Aurora and Yu goes inside,emerging moments later with a datapad. 

[God i hope there are other survivors. If you've found this I've put water and nutrition bars along with seaglides in the storage of this pod. It should be synthesizing med-packs if you require them. I've headed out to build a bigger base at these coordinates. Please feel free to join me, as the more people we have working together the better our chances are. Nemo d'Vidas]

Nemo is working away at her sanctuary - there's plenty of metal salvage, her PDA while a snarky bitch has provided her the means to build an underwater base, though it warns she will have to repay the total costs of product used. Nemo sighs no-one on the ship knew of her true identity and she could build the base entirely out of diamonds and still not make a dent in her wealth. There were glass panels, and she was adding on some extra rooms, beside her bedroom, the storage room and the scanner room because she had to hope that someone would hear her message and survive. Suddenly a shadow fell over her and she turned to see two figures, their faces obscured by their masks, she signed at them but when she got no response, beckoned to them to follow her and led them inside her base. Water streamed off of them as they climbed into the airlocked antechamber.

They hung up their suits and masks on the hooks Nemo indicated, and she brought them into the open-work/eating/leisure space she had created. "Hi, it's so good to see you. My name is Nemo D'Vidas - I was a passenger about the Aurora."  
The older Asian woman bows, "I am Chief Technical Officer Hikari Yu."  
Nemo bows in acknowledgement, "and I am Second Officer Nicholas Keen," says the man, and Nemo could see a smile glinting in the silver of his eyes.  
"Is there anyone else? I know I found a few pods where sadly they didn't make it."  
"No-one else had made it to the island by the rendezvous time." answered the Commander  
"Oh there's another island? Excellent, maybe there'll be some plants we can propagate."  
"We'll need to recover before we swim back there."  
"Fair enough, i imagine it’s a journey even with seaglides. I found a couple of Seamoth parts but i'm still missing a few to get the blueprint to load correctly. But, enough of that - the sun is setting so why don't I show you around and make us some dinner - it'll be fish and water but at least its food."  
"Thank you Ms D'Vidas."  
"Oh please, call me Nemo - both of you. Now if you'll follow me I've got some small bedrooms set up this way."

The facility is small but there's enough room for all of them and both Yu and Keen have ideas for extensions. Nemo makes dinner - as promised it’s Peepers and fresh water but she goes to her room and pulls out from her purse the last few mini-chocolates she had on her and shares them for dessert. The officers are appreciative - and they talk for a while on lighter things, before going their separate ways to bed. 

The next morning Nemo was up early, as usual and had made a pot of tea, watching as the water lightened as the sun rose. She was detailing thoughts and plans in the journal section of her PDA - and had come up with some action items that hopefully Yu and Keen would be on board with helping her with. Yu walked into the living area rubbing her eyes, and Nemo directed her to where the coffee machine she'd restored was. She made herself what looked like a black-hole of espresso and came to sit next to Nemo. After awareness had crept into her face - two cups of that dark coffee later, Nemo offered a nutrition bar, knowing from experience they were easier to digest than fish on first waking. 

"So Officer Yu,"  
"Please, Nemo, my name is Hikari - I do not require you to address me so formally,"  
Nemo smiles - it lights up her face, "Hikari, is there a way to get an outgoing signal that ends the distress call?"  
"Maybe, why do you want to send something?"  
"I have a bad feeling - the island I ended up on had a strange alien structure. to me it looked like a weapon - potentially it could have shot down the Aurora and if it did, then any spacecraft that comes to rescue us may suffer the same fate or worse if it is a smaller ship."  
"You may be right. did you have any thoughts yourself about it?"  
They quickly start talking technical jargon, and Hikari is impressed at Nemo's knowledge. It strikes her as odd that the younger woman doesn't defer as much as she’d expected - though she does give credit where credit is due. She asks suddenly about Nemo's age, and gets a raised eyebrow as well as an answer that doesn't actually give her a number at all.

Officer Keen walks out into the main area of the base and sees the two others in deep conversation, so he's pleasantly surprised that Nemo breaks it off and turns to acknowledge him before he's said anything letting him know where the coffee is and the food. Both Yu and d'Vidas wait for him, and after he's had his coffee he asks "So what have you been planning?"

D'Vidas is the one who answers after exchanging a look with Yu, "We're going to try and create an outbound signal that warns ships away. There was an alien tech on the island I went to, and I believe it is likely what shot down the Aurora - something like that would destroy any smaller ships who got into range. Then we were going to do some resource hunting - with the three of us we should be able to cover a lot of ground and hopefully find enough parts to get blueprints for a seamoth or three. After that I would like to return to your island and see about getting our food sources stabilised. I'm also concerned - when i went closer to the Aurora I received a radioactive warning, I think there's something up with the engines so we'll need to see about protective gear if we want to try and access the Aurora."  
"That reminds me," Yu interrupts, "I've made rebreathers. They'll help with the exploration."  
"Hikari, you're a genius." Nemo responds "I could just about kiss you." She takes a rebreather and ignores the slight blush on the scientist's cheek.

"Commander," she turns back to him "what are your thoughts?"  
"Firstly you can call me by name, there's only three of us and I'm not one for standing on ceremony."  
Both Nemo and Hikari nod. "Secondly I think that if you can get that signal out I am very much for the idea that no-one else loses their lives to this death-trap world. As for exploration, Nemo you have a scanner room?"  
"Yes I've built one and upgraded it slightly - I can set it to look for wrecks as its likely that's where we could find blueprint information and scrap metal which will come in handy for base-building."  
"Alright, how long do you think it will take you to work out a radio fix?"  
"Hikari?" Nemo asked,  
"Around 2 days to work out the fix - I'll need copper and wiring kits"  
"Check in the storage room I know I've got copper on hand for converting into wires or batteries but i'm not sure about the kits"  
"Alright, you should focus on that Hikari - if you need help shout out. Nemo perhaps you and I could do some exploration, I'd be curious to see this other island you found."  
"It's a few hours by seaglide, we could go now and make it by midday."  
"How about we spend some time to see if we can find those missing Seamoth parts first, it'd make traveling simpler."  
"I agree, lets go set the scanner."

As Nemo stands she press a hand against Hikari's shoulder "Let me know if you need anything."  
Nicholas falls into step with her as they head to the scanner room, "here we are," she says  
"let me change it to highlight wrecks."  
"What is it currently on?" Nicholas walks around the centre hologram looking at the lit up spots  
"At the moment? basalt - i needed diamonds for laser cutters and basalt outcroppings occasionally have them."  
"I see. and there it goes." The hologram reloads and several spots highlight. Nemo comes over and looks as well.  
"It seems like there are 4 within the scanner's distance - shall we split them two and two?"  
"Certainly, do you have a spare chip for the goggles?"  
"Oh yes, here," she crosses to a wall locker and pulls out a chip and a laser cutter, offering them to Nicholas.

He takes them as she looks up (impressed as she's 6 foot) at him and smiles "Why don't you take the two that are to the east from the base, I'll head west and circle clockwise."  
"We should check in at the base at a set time" Nicholas suggests, "to make sure everything’s going okay."  
"Alright - 2 hours from now?"  
"It's a date," he replies, and enjoys the way Nemo's face lights up when she laughs.


	2. Sharp Edged Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Putting plans into action the three survivors begin to take steps forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus chapter because we all need a little happy and writing this makes me happy - hopefully reading it does the same for you <3

They go to grab their wetsuits as Hikari calls out, reminding them that she needs wiring kits. "That's silver and gold and copper - sandstone outcroppings are rich in those."  
Nemo tells Nicholas, "see you in two hours," puts on her mask, fins and tank and is out the hatch swimming gracefully. Nicholas pulls on his own gear - his tank is different, he makes a note to ask Nemo about that on their return. He checks the compass and swims off east. Two hours passes swiftly, Nicholas has investigate the first wreck fully and put a beacon on the second when the timer he set tells him it’s time to head back. He enters the base and sees that Nemo has already returned, her gear hanging in the antechamber.

"You're back," she says when he walks into the living area,"and all in one piece too I see."  
"Did you doubt me?"  
"Not at all," Nemo laughs "did you find anything useful?"  
"Yes - the entirety of the vehicle bay, and hopefully when combined with yours the rest of the Seamoth blueprint."  
"Oh excellent! I found parts of a moonpool and also a nuclear reactor - currently we're running on bio-fuel from the kelp I'm cultivating outside."  
"Did you make it through both your wrecks?"

"Yeah, the first one was basically empty - the second also had a blueprint for electric fins that will recharge whatever we're holding while we swim"  
"That sounds really useful. How're you doing Hikari?" he asks as she came out from the storage room  
"A lot better than I had hoped in fact."  
"I picked up some silver and other bits and pieces - hopefully they'll be useful."  
"Thankyou Nicholas."  
"I mostly found copper and metal salvage, but i had a run-in with a stalker that netted me some teeth." Nemo adds.

She then sighs internally as admitting to fighting a stalker causes both of her basemates to do the headless chicken thing. "Please, calm down - I'm alright." She rolls up the sleeve of her shirt revealing the bite marks "see it's barely a scratch"  
"Nemo," Nicholas said, "please sit down and allow me to get a med-pak for you."  
"Well only because you asked so nicely." She sat, and let Nicholas wrap her arm, as Hikari brought over tea. She drinks a cup and breathes out - it isn't their fault that their concern rubs her the wrong way. "Nemo," Nicholas gains her attention "would you come out and watch my back when we head to the final wreck - we'll have enough daylight."

She looks at him, her gaze is piercing like she's taking his measure but she nods "Alright, make sure you grab a nutri-bar to munch on."  
"How's the arm?" Hikari asks her  
"Much recovered already, the bites were mostly superficial."  
"Once I've done with the distress call perhaps I shall come up with ways to improve the wetsuits."  
"That'd be awesome Hikari," her smile is open and causes the older woman to grin in return.  
"Perhaps in our down time I could teach you divers sign? If you wanted? It's a useful communication tool."  
"Is that what you were doing when we first got here?"  
"Yeah, I learned it an age ago because I thought it might come in handy."  
"It would - a project for after dinner tonight?"  
"Sounds good to me."

The two gear back up and swim out together, Nicholas takes the lead - and notices that he has to go up for air far more often than Nemo does. They surface together when they reach the wreck so he asks "What size is your tank?"  
"I upgraded mine to the High Capacity tank - shite, yours probably aren't upgraded."  
"No they're not."  
"Well I know for certain I'll have the ability to upgrade them when we get back. Ready to dive?"

 

He pulls his mask back on and gives her a thumbs up, they dive in unison down to the wreck. Nemo touches his arm and points - he sees the brain coral and nods in appreciation. Nicholas finds the door with telltale charcoal markings that mean its structure is damaged enough that the laser cutter will work. He starts in and gets the first door open, swimming over to the brain coral to refresh his air. Nemo swims back into his view, and sees the door - she heads into the inner wreck and Nicholas moves to join her. She's halfway through cutting a second door and he kind of gets what she means about sign being handy. He scans a few pieces around the room and then finds a hidden crate that contains a blueprint for some sort of upgrade. 

There's a muted clang, and he glances up to see Nemo's got the door open - she moves to go in, then pauses, turns and heads for the brain coral. Nicholas takes a moment to appreciate her going, before seeing if there's any further treasure in the opened room. He's found a couple of batteries and is checking for more things when he's joined by Nemo - together they scan the last sections to give them the vehicle station blueprint, before Nemo swims into another opening, coming out looking very excited. He wonders what she found.

Having ensured there's nothing left in the wreck the two swimmers head for the water's surface - breaking the water together. The sun's getting low so they head back to the base. Hikari greets them with fresh water and just-cooked fish. "I think I've cracked how to change the signal but we're going to need to get into the Aurora to send it."  
Nemo hugs her, "That's amazing Hikari, I'm impressed!"  
"Well done." adds Nicholas. "Should we go to the Aurora tomorrow?"  
"We don't have radiation suits yet." Nemo says, "and that wasn't one of the plans I found..."  
Without the radiation suit plans Nemo suggests that they should try building seamoths tomorrow and then explore further afield for the blueprint.

They all go to their rooms fairly early, after their first lesson in divers sign. Nemo doesn't sleep much at all and so has gotten back up and is sitting by the window watching the bioluminescent world go by, planning for the next steps when she sees Nicholas emerge from his room, a little unsteady.

"Hey," she calls softly, "you alright?"

Nicholas comes over to her, she moves over and pats the seat - when he sits she gently wraps an arm around him, "i've got you." Slowly, ever so slowly, he relaxes into her hold and leans his head on her shoulder, as she murmurs soothing things that wash over him.

"Do you have nightmares?" he asks  
"yes, many and varied. have your dreams been troubled?"  
"That's an understatement."  
"Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps." 

Nemo strokes a hand up and down his back. Haltingly Nicholas talks of the loss of life, of the way he dreams of being nearly fast enough, good enough, to change the outcome only to have it snatched from his hands. He speaks of the way reanimated bodies chase him and drag him down into the water. Nemo listens, holding him - when he's done she tells him the truth, "this was not your fault. you didn't know. we are going to get off this planet and go home."   
He shakes his head, so Nemo repeats the assurances again, quietly and firmly before offering to share a bed, explaining that for herself when she has nightmares having someone else in the bed can help her get back to sleep. He takes her up on it, and sleeps untroubled until the next morning.

They launch the vehicle bay near the base and Hikari crafts the Seamoths while Nicholas grabs parts and Nemo builds three moonpools to dock them in. She also builds the second depth upgrade and the shielding upgrade (the shielding upgrade was the thing she was so pleased about finding in the wreck.) Nemo's just finished the last upgrade when Hikari parks the first seamoth in the moonpool she's using.

"Excellent timing Hikari." she says, coming over and inserting the two upgrades "Shielding and a depth module. Didn't know what else you'd like."  
"Thank you Nemo. I might add extra storage space to mine."  
"Feel free - and go ahead to customise it as well."  
"I will, yours is already parked in the next moonpool and Nicholas should be pulling up in the last one soon."  
"Awesome. Thanks." 

Nemo quickly walks through the corridor and looks in on Nicholas, "Hey Commander. Got some upgrades for you."  
He smiles "which ones?"  
"Depth and shielding - we've got the ability to make storage, engine efficiency and the perimeter defence system if any of those appeal to you."  
"Probably go with efficiency and storage short term"  
"I'm thinking I'll go with storage and the defence system myself."  
"That will keep us pretty balanced, what do you think of a solar charger?"  
"I think that we've got enough power to the base at the moment and whenever we go out far enough it might become an issue we'll be going deep so that the solar power because useless anyway."  
"True enough, have you upgraded yours yet?"  
"No, about to go do that myself."

Nicholas nods in farewell and Nemo goes into the final moonpool to outfit her seamoth. She colours it an aqua that will blend with the water though she can't resist naming it "Kestrel" appears in the same purple as her hair. After she's done inserting the upgrades she goes back to the main room to see about supplies for their trip out to the islands.


	3. It's Always Quantum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things go Boom.

The three of them decide to go to what Nemo has dubbed "Alien Island" first, as both Nicholas and Hikari want to see this alien technology. Fully loaded up with food water medkits and a couple spare fully-charged power cells they head out. Nemo's Kestrel takes point with Nicholas' BnBM and Hikari's Makoto following close behind her. In her cockpit Nemo pilots with one hand, writing out notes in her PDA with the other as to locations of interesting seeming places. They stop briefly when they discover a ruined pod, Nemo stays in her ship as Hikari and Nicholas grab an abandoned PDA and check around for anything useful. She recites the mourning words of her people, they chime like a prayer in the silence of the cockpit. 

Once the others have returned they make good time to the island, pulling up on the low beach near the large alien technology.   
"It does look rather imposing doesn't it?" Hikari comments  
"Yep. There was a broken might-be-keycard on the beach and the entrance ways are all blocked off with ray-doors." Nemo explains "i'm not sure  
if there's an underwater way in or if there might be more keycards lying about."  
"Well let's investigate," said Nicholas  
"Oh by the way there's a lot of lithium on the island, if you find any chunks that you can carry we could do with more - I used a bunch for the depth upgrades"  
The three walked along the beach, Nemo casually and unobtrusively calling on her magic to send the cave-crawlers scurrying away.

"Oh look up there," Hikari scaled the rocks to a higher section of the beach with a gracefulness that Nemo appreciated.  
"What have you found Hikari?" she called after her.  
Hikari held up a card with a glowing purple symbol "I think its a keycard!"  
"Nice find! Can you get back down here - there's a place for it by the ray door I saw it earlier."  
She clambered back down to where Nicholas and Nemo waited, carrying the odd-shaped card as if it were infinitely precious. It wasn't long before they stood in the shadows cast by the Alien building. 

Nemo pointed out the grey pedestal and Hikari placed the keycard into it - it snapped into place, and the rayshield faded from view.   
“Alright, Nemo and I will go inside - Hikari will you stay and keep watch here.”  
“Yes. Be careful. Scan everything”

The exploration of the inside nets them some weird glowing green crystals - which Nemo puts into her pack, several more keycards which open up more sections of the Quarantine Enforcement Platform - they discover the name when they get into the innermost sanctum (after finding the moonpool and the air-pressure elevator) and try to switch off the power.

Turns out that the trace amount of bacteria that the PDA had warned them about was actually a deadly virus and that unless they could find a cure they’d not be able to shut down the system - once they’d assessed that there was no danger Nicholas and Hikari had swapped, she and Nemo were scanning everything to try and find out as much information as they could and learned that a) the QEP was in fact able to destroy ships from orbit and b) there was a facility with more information that was deeper underwater. It was unlikely that they’d be able to get to that depth with their current vehicles so further planning would be needed.

Leaving the QEP behind the three survivors walked up the cliff-face searching caves and grabbing lithium. They came across a giant archway made of the same metal-hybrid as the QEP. As Nicholas approaches it a box pops up - requesting a crystal.   
“Nemo, will you come here?”  
“Certainly,” she crosses to where he stands “What’s up Nicholas?”  
He indicates the pedestal with its odd box “I think maybe one of those crystals could go here.”  
“Looks that way, hang on,” she grabs one of the crystals out of her bag and is pulled by a sudden force back to the pedestal.  
Nicholas grabs her arm and she lets go of the crystal, the commotion draws Hikari over to them, a good thing too as the diagonal archway lights up and a portal swirls into being - pale green and thrumming at the edge of Nemo’s hearing.

Hikari is ecstatic and immediately begins to take readings of the energy being emitted. Nemo wonders if it’s stable and volunteers to go through. Nicholas challenges her to a game of rock-paper-scissors for the privilege. He wins, and strides through the portal - coming out on what he recognises as the other island, he checks there’s nothing immediately dangerous and crosses back over to grab the others. All of them add the arch to their list of important coordinates as they will need to return to get their seamoths but for now there’s a new island to explore.

It’s a small island - they find the ruined Degasi base, scan everything - and find another purple keycard, which Nemo keeps because she has a feeling it will be important for when they go hunting the Disease Research Center and then find the second farm full of melons and potatoes. 

All three have bulging packs full of seedlings from every plant they can find. Nemo asks if they could go check out the lookouts, mostly because she wants to scan the observatory but also in case there’s more blueprints around - so the three hike up the mountainside to the taller peak. There they find an abandoned PDA and stasis rifle fragments, enough to complete the blueprint. Suddenly all three PDAs give out a warning - the Aurora’s engines are destabilising. They watch in horror as the entire front of the Aurora explodes, the shockwave reaching them and the horrible clicking of their Geiger counters goes nuts.

“Radiation suit has been added to your blueprints for your convenience.” chimes the PDA.

“Well at least now we know how we can get into the Aurora.” says Hikari.


	4. My, What Big Teeth You Have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our intrepid trio make it to the Aurora.  
> And have a run-in with the Big Fish

The trip back to the base via the teleporters is quiet. Nemo docks her seamoth and then goes to the storage room. Hikari finds her there rummaging through the cupboards.  
“Nemo?”  
“Oh, hey Hikari - I’m just grabbing titanium so we can build a plant growing area.”  
“You know I’d believe you if your hands weren’t shaking.”  
Nemo is silent for a moment, the tremors in her hands still when she concentrates. “It’s nothing.”  
“I very much doubt that. Do you think we should have planters and growbeds or just the beds?”  
“Let’s mix it up - and perhaps we can put some planters around the place - I was thinking a lantern fruit tree by the bio-reactor as they’ll probably be good to feed to it and then some of the voxels to add some colour to the walls.” Nemo appreciated that Hikari was willing to drop the subject though she had a sneaking suspicion it was merely tabled.

Nicholas stuck his head into the room “Where would you like the melons? I have so many melons!”  
Nemo laughs, and if it’s a little stilted neither of the others call her on it. They spend a pleasant rest of the afternoon setting up the plants and making the base feel a little more domestic. Hikari pulls apart the fabricator and finds the limitations that were set. A bit of fiddling and she’s able to override those limitation code which will enable them to do more cooking that just “cooked fish” and “cured fish”. 

Nicholas gets the radiation suits sorted out, and over dinner they discuss the possibility of heading over to the Aurora the next day to send the broken arrow message. Nemo is quiet over dinner - the driving and vibrant force that she exuded has muted itself. And Nicholas looks at Hikari, who shrugs - they can’t make Nemo talk to them. When she turns in for an early night though Nicholas wonders.

He wakes from another nightmare and goes out to get himself a drink - and Nemo is sitting on the bench seat by the window. She doesn’t acknowledge him at all - Nicholas thinks for a moment before grabbing a second mug of jasmine tea and bringing it over to her. Nemo takes the tea and drinks it. Nicholas doesn’t, he’s a good leader but not so good at words sometimes, but he sits next to her, wishing he could help and drinking his tea.

“I was in a massive explosion when I was younger.” Nemo says, quietly, “The one today reminded me of all I could not save.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
Nemo smiled a little “it’s alright, most days I don’t think on it much.”  
He nods, and they drink the rest of their tea in silence, Nicholas shifts a little closer not entirely certain if Nemo needs or wants physical comfort like she’d offered him and not wanting to impose. She leans into him, and he barely catches her whispered thanks. Somehow they end up in Nicholas’ bed, and he falls asleep in the circle of her arms which is weird because he was supposed to be comforting her. 

The next morning Nemo seems more her usual self, and has made a full on breakfast using the last of the potatoes turned into what appears to be hash browns and (after copious testing) mushrooms all fried together with reggies - the nicest of all the fish they’ve found so far. Both Hikari and Nicholas are full of admiration which Nemo responds to with a smile that reaches her eyes.

“Alright, are we ready to go?” asks Nicholas, grabbing a med-kit that had just finished synthesising.   
“I am,” calls Nemo, already on her way to the moonpool  
“Nearly there - just grabbing some extra electronics to help with the overrides.” Hikari says emerging from the storage room with a pack that’s bulging a little.

They journey towards the Aurora, not in strict formation but keeping each other in sight. On the way they find some discarded repulsion cannon fragments, along with the rest of the nuclear reactor blueprint. It’s going well as they make their way to the blown-open front of the ship. Unfortunately that’s when things start going sideways.

The only warning they have is the flash of Nemo’s lights - Morse code G.E.T.O.U.T, a warning barely in time as a huge creature charges towards them, the Makoto ducks and weaves, getting to safety between the debris of the Aurora where the leviathan can’t reach. Nicholas is right behind Hikari and only when both of them are safe, clambering out onto the shifting but relatively stable surface of the Aurora they realise Nemo isn’t with them.

Nemo watches for a moment as the two subs flee, then she turns her attention back to the large leviathan trying its best to eat her and the sub. She uses the defense modification to stun it briefly, giving her time to get out of the Kestrel, grab out the upgrades and then as it charges the sub, tearing it to shreds, Nemo ducks and weaves, her scanner out and active - she casts a mild notice-me-not, it’s far more draining that it would usually be but in this case passing unseen is an advantage she’s not willing to give up. The completed scan tells her that this is a Reaper Leviathan, and Nemo privately thinks it’s beautiful.

On the Aurora Hikari wants to get back out into the water to help Nemo but Nicholas stops her - in an argument reminiscent of the first they had, “Nemo wanted us to change the distress call. We should honour her sacrifice by doing so.”  
“I’m a little upset that you think a fish would be the end of me,” comes Nemo’s voice from the other side of the platform. “The Kestrel didn’t make it but I got a full scan of the bastard while he munched it.”  
“You’re unhurt?” asks Hikari, and at her obvious distress Nemo softens  
“Yes, I’m unharmed. Not even a scratch!”  
“Good.” Hikari pulls Nemo into a hug, and Nicholas joins them. For a moment they breathe, glad to be alive.


	5. With Great Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exploring the Aurora and some tensions in the team

The ruined landing is covered with scattered supply kits - Nemo opens everything, taking the batteries and the nutrition bars. Hikari finds a fire extinguisher and sets about putting out the small burns in the doorway that lead into the Aurora proper. Nicholas goes climbing along the bits of exposed beams to get to a second entrance point.

“Two ways in.” he calls down to the women  
“ This one first - it’s closer to the prawn bay and engines. Yours will be a good entry point for the quarters.”  
“Alright,” he makes his way back down and then moves to catch Nemo who went from being fine to collapsing. Something whispers at the edge of his mind, and judging by the look on Nemo’s face she can hear what it’s saying. After a few tense minutes, she pushes herself up. “That was odd.”  
Hikari looks disconcerted “it felt like someone was trying to talk to me but the sounds were garbled.”  
Nemo nods, “I heard them fairly clearly. They want to help - asked for us to come to them but I lost the connection before I could ask where they were.”  
Nicholas passes her a nutri-bar - holding it out to Nemo until she takes it and eats it. She shakes off the weirdness of the incident. “Let’s do this.”

The three survivors head into the Aurora - it’s eerily quiet apart from the hiss-snap of the ruined electronics and the crackle of the many small fires. Many of the corridors are flooded and cargo boxes have fallen to block many of the corridors but between the three of them it doesn’t take long to get into the Prawn Bay. Nemo stays to scan enough parts to get the blueprints sorted while Hikari and Nicholas go on ahead to get to the distress beacon.

Nemo runs into them coming back from the communications “Done?”  
“Yes,” Hikari replies “the message broadcast has been changed to no rescue should be attempted.”  
“And I used my codes to get a plan for a rocket - if we can disable the gun we’ll be able to get ourselves off the planet using that.”  
“That’s great Nicholas!” Nemo enthused, “I’ve got all the prawn suit blueprints I can get from here so I think we just need to fix the engines and then we’re good?”  
“Think so.”

Together they head down to the engine room - cutting through the locked doors, swimming where they need to. They stand on the walkways - 10 leaks identified. Nemo doesn’t even give the others a chance to argue or rock-paper-scissors but dives into the water straight away to find the leaks under the surface. There are biters - probably how the infection was being transmitted but Nemo pulses them away from her with another use of magic - she’s going to sleep well once they get home.

Patching the last underwater leak causes her PDA to announce that everything had stabilised. Nemo surfaces and climbs back onto the catwalk, glad that there wouldn’t be a permanent ecological disaster from the engines. Nicholas glares but doesn’t give the lecture she can sense on his tongue, and Hikari is pleased but reminds them that it would probably be a good idea to get going before the sunsets - and that they’ll need to keep an eye out for the leviathan.

“I guess I’ll swim back,” Nemo says as they make the way back onto the open section of the hull.  
“Uh-huh. No.” replies Nicholas, “it’ll be a tight fit but you should come with me.”  
“I do prefer it that way.” she says, watching the blush rise to Nicholas’ cheeks as he realises what she was implying.  
Hikari laughs “Nemo can share my sub - I’m smaller than both of you.”  
“I can just swim!” Nemo tries again to object but somehow finds herself inside the Makoto with a lap full of Technical Officer before she can blink.

Hikari and Nemo chat on the way back, a technical discussion about potential sound-wave/noise-makers that could disrupt the echolocation that the Reaper uses. Nemo has reached around Hikari’s waist and is steering as Hikari takes notes about their ideas. And if Nemo is a little distracted by how beautiful Hikari is when she’s animatedly talking about hertz and amplification well that’s fine, she wouldn’t push at all for anything but enjoys the late afternoon light turning the silver streaks in Hikari’s hair to gold.

When they reach the base, Hikari retires to her room - taking a plate of food with her claiming exhaustion. Nemo doubts that’s the reason, but is nonetheless left alone with Nicholas. They eat in a slightly strained silence, and Nemo decides she doesn’t want to leave this festering, there’s only three of them so they need to be okay with each other. (And look she’s knows she’s a useless bisexual sometimes but seriously how did the two most gorgeous people on the ship survive. So if there’s a chance for the three of them, to be more than okay with each other she’d be down for that.)

She stands and walks down to the scanner room - it’s far enough away from the bedrooms that even if they get loud they shouldn’t disturb Hikari. Nicholas follows her a pace and a half behind. Once they’re both in the room Nemo holds up a hand, draws out the habitat builder and creates a door that should also help. That done she turns and faces Nicholas, raising an eyebrow.

It’s an impressive lecture. It would be more impressive if Nemo was in fact a) as young as she looked b) just a passenger c) not used to fighting down entire armies with limited support - after which a Reaper is merely a toothy fish. Nicholas finally winds down and Nemo asks quietly “are you done?”  
“Yes. I’m done.”  
“Commander,” and the title is a well-placed barb but Nemo is hoping that he understands that as the Commander was the one doing the lecturing he is the one she will respond to. “I understand your concern. It is misplaced. My life is not worth more than yours simply because I was a passenger rather than in a position of authority. You will need to trust me and be able to treat me as an equal in the same way that CTO Yu and I treat with each other. I have combat experience with creatures of equal and larger size than that fish we encountered. As for the engine-room, I merely wished to complete the task as quickly as possible and did not want either of you getting hurt.”

Nicholas tilts his head “you’ve been a leader before.”  
She confirms it with a nod “it’s a hard habit to break.”  
“Alright, Nemo, I won’t say that I'm sorry for lecturing you because I’m not but I will take what you’ve said on board and will endeavour to do better in the future.”  
He holds out his hand, and is pleased when Nemo doesn’t shake it but uses her grip on his hand to pull him into a hug.  
“We’re going to get off this planet.” she promises him.


	6. The Sorrow Filled Depths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time and exploration brings more of the sorrow of their situation to light.

The three survivors spend a few days relaxing, gathering local supplies, checking on the gardens and planning for the future. On one of her solo trips out Hikari found a cave system that she thought would be worth exploring. She and Nicholas go out and find another Degasi base, along with an alien containment system and a strange egg. They install the system in the base, and put the egg inside. Nemo on her journey for replacement parts for a new seamoth came across a different cave system - and in it she found some glorious vibrant purple plants along with one that was a delicate blue; she took cuttings of them both and then grew them in the containment system the others had set up.

They talk a lot, and Nemo tells them a bit of her background, edited of course - there are few people who could learn the full truth and not run screaming. But the explosion, the war, the fighting against a friend these things she tells them and the good things as well - snowball fights and dancing until dawn. She learns about Hikari’s first paper published at 15, and about how Nicholas’ dad took him camping every year until he left for the Academy. Hikari talks about the failed experiment that nearly killed her and Nicholas speaks of that one space flight where there was an unexpected meteor shower; a meteor tore a hole through the cargo bay and spaced three of the crew.

Hikari finds a deck of cards in the belongings she salvaged from the Aurora and this leads to the three of them bemoaning the lack of a fourth player for Bridge or Hearts; Nicholas enjoys Up and Down the Spaceway but Hikari hates it, eventually they compromise on Sevens. Nemo carves a 3-player cribbage board from the wood of the island trees and then proceeds to soundly beat both of the others at the game.

They still haven’t solved the deep-dive problem, the prawn suits can’t be built without aerogel and despite their best efforts they’ve not seen any aluminium oxide - corundum - crystals. It’s Nemo who finds a potential solution in the form of a cyclops bridge blueprint - they’d need two others to be able to put together the larger sub but it gives much needed hope to the team.

Hikari and Nemo travel out together to try and find more Cyclops parts but they end up in the wrong mushroom forest - however this leads them to a large cave system, there’s heavier water pooling and draining into the caves but they’re almost at the seamoth depth limit. Further exploration reveals yet another base, they get in to start stripping it when they’re attacked. The strange animal is a cross between a crab and a squid - it seems to be able to emit EMPs. Nemo looks over at Hikari, who is frozen and Nemo can recognise a flashback when she sees one, so she grabs Hikari by the hand and swims them both out to their subs. Abandoning the Falcon for now, Nemo once again seats Hikari in her lap and pilots the Makoto to safety.

They surface a ways from the base - driven by her healer’s instinct Nemo had headed for the sun - and it seems to be helping, Hikari’s shakes slow and then stop and she offers Nemo a soft apology.   
“Nah, enough of that - you saw me after the explosion, I get it Hikari. If you wanna talk I’m here and I’ll listen, you don’t want to say anything that’s fine too.”

Nemo listens as Hikari talks about her young protege Berkeley - how he had a sense of humour and was her equal in terms of understanding and the project they were working on when the alarms going. How they’d raced together to find a lifepod - and then how it took on water but they were able to create a bilge pump. They had cobbled together rebreathers and made for the surface from nearly 500 meters below. And as they swam they were attacked by one of those crab-squids. Berkeley had looked her in the eye, lifted a hand in farewell and distracted the predator allowing her to reach the surface. “I saw the pod when we were heading towards the base. It just all…” she trails off and begins to cry. Nemo holds her tightly, and rocks a little, humming softly and providing what comfort she can.

Nemo doesn’t want to leave yet another seamoth behind, and so once Hikari has recovered some, tells her to head back to the base, that she will be no more than an hour or two behind. Hikari gives her a watery smile “You best be, or I’ll sic Nicholas onto you.”  
Nemo mimes a stab wound to the heart, and the brief chuckle she receives in return is so worth it. “Word of honour - see you soon.” She makes sure Hikari is headed in the correct direction before diving back down into the depths.

Nemo ignores her sub - currently idling around the back of the base and instead swims to find the lifepod Hikari had mentioned. Magic swirled in her hands, and was sent into the sands, magic that sought calcium. It returned to her with a skull but no more - the rest of the bones lost to the sea or to the monsters that dwelled here. She carried Berkeley to the pod, and gently placed his skull inside. She swam back out and called more magic - careless of the cost, and slowly oh so slowly the metal of the pod changed, becoming a memorial that none would see and as it shaped itself Nemo sang -a bubble of air to breathe in and the songs of mourning. She sang his name, shaping it so that it would always echo a little in this place, sang of his deeds and his valour. And she closed with the only prayer she used anymore - that peace would find him wherever his soul roamed.

Having done what she could, Nemo goes back to the Falcon and begins the trip back to base. It does not surprise her at all to see the BnBM coming towards her when she’s about halfway back, but she flickers her lights in a greeting and allows Nicholas to take point for the rest of the journey. That night she slips into Hikari’s room and holds her hand while telling her of the rituals she did for Berkeley in the hopes it will bring some comfort.


	7. Weightless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> relationships grow, marblemelons make great liqueur - who knew?

The next morning after everyone’s up Hikari and Nicholas find Nemo unmaking the bedrooms - their personalisations, clothing etc have all been piled up in the hallway   
“Nemo, what are you doing?” asks Hikari  
“Gimme a sec,” is the reply as Nemo crafts a new room - this one is larger than the regular multipurpose rooms, as if a few have been stuck together and with a wave of Nemo’s hand all their belongings fly in and rearrange themselves around the room, including one of Nemo’s blankets which drapes itself over the rather large bed that’s up against one of the walls. Once Nemo’s happy with how everything looks she turns to see nearly identical expressions of “please explain” on her teammates faces.  
“Um, so if you hate it I’ll put it back but none of us are having an easy time and physical company can help with that so I thought perhaps we could share a bed at least on base…”  
They stare at Nemo, who starts to get worried but then both of them are hugging her and think that it’s a great idea.

That night both Hikari and Nicholas sleep soundly - Nemo knows this because she was awake for most of the night. But she’s never needed much sleep, and their presence in the room helped her from getting caught up in waking nightmares and negative spirals so she counts it as a definite win, she even managed a few hours of peaceful meditation. In the morning as the light comes filtering through the window she stirs the others to wakefulness, and enjoys the dawning clarity on their faces as they realise they slept through the night.   
“I told you, human touch works wonders,” Nemo says, half jokingly to them  
“Mmm, it does. Thank you Nemo,” replies Hikari who leans up and presses a kiss against Nemo’s cheek, causing her to blush slightly.  
“Yes, thanks Nemo,” echoes Nicholas, and Nemo’s blush deepens when he also kisses her cheek.

That sets the tone for the next few days, there’s a lot of casual touching going on, almost as if they had all of them needed a push to reach out. Hikari decides to work on installing communicators into the seamoths so Nemo and Nicholas leave her to it and head out with their seaglides - searching for the mushroom forest that Nemo knows she was near the other day - it takes an hour and a half but then they’re there. The jellyrays are so lovely, and it’s peaceful. Nemo and Nicholas manage to find the rest of the Cyclops parts scattered in between two copses of the mushroom spires. Nemo also scoops up a jellyray egg because she’d love to tame one.

They float together basking in the sunlight for a while after they’ve finished collecting everything - there’s a moment when they both reach for the other to hold hands and it’s sweet and gentle and such a bad idea - nonetheless Nemo doesn’t pull her hand away, lets herself enjoy the moment. And when they return to the base, Hikari greets them with a wide smile and glasses of greenish liquid. Bemused both Nicholas and Nemo take a glass, then sip. Nemo’s eyes widen “Hikari.”  
“Yes, Nemo?”  
“Did you somehow manage to create marblemelon liqueur?”  
“Yep. I thought we deserved it.”  
Nicholas laughs, “I’ll drink to that.”  
The alcohol is sweet with a subtle burn that reminds them to be cautious. Still they’re all a little tipsy after the first bottle. Tomorrow they’ll go out and make a Cyclops but right now this break, Nemo knows it’s stopping them all from literally falling to pieces. 

“You know what this means?” Hikari says as they sit around their table with full glasses, two more bottles of melon liqueur and Nemo’s freshly made potato crisps - because they need something to soak up this alcohol.  
“Never have I ever?” asks Nemo, half jokingly  
“Precisely!”  
Nemo sighed, but topped up everyone’s glasses, “you in Nicholas?”  
He shrugged “why not - shall I begin?”  
“Go ahead”  
“Never have I ever driven a car.”  
Nemo sips, as does Hikari - who goes next “Never have I ever cheated on a test.”  
After a while the questions turn personal  
“Never have I ever had sex outdoors.”  
Nemo drinks   
“Never have I ever tied anyone up in bed.”  
Nemo is wondering if they are trying to get her drunk as she finishes a glass and pours another - she’s at a distinct disadvantage due to her age, and while she’s sure she could technically only count the time spent in this universe for the game where would be the fun in that.

A few rounds later, the last bottle of liqueur is open and half empty, Hikari is giggling and between them gets out “Never have I ever been with more than one person.”  
Nemo looks at her glass, and finishes the drink. “Well if you’re both interested in changing that let me know on a day we’re all sober.”   
She then bids good night to her stunned teammates - when they go to bed later though she’s not in the room. “Did we screw up?” asks Hikari  
“I don’t think so. We’ll ask Nemo when she returns.” replies Nicholas.  
They fall asleep, and don’t witness Nemo coming back to the room. She smiles at the two of them curled up together and sits on the end of the bed to keep watch until dawn. And if her lips move in silent remembrance of her loved and lost well that’s her secret to keep.


	8. Radiance Conquers No-one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Building the Cyclops and heading out to explore - meeting the Sea Treaders

It’s best not to leave these things to fester, so Nemo makes an apology breakfast - her patented hangover cure and a layered breakfast brick with the nutri-bars, lantern fruit and honey from her bag. It’s a fair bit of effort to retrieve the honey but worth it Nemo thinks. So Hikari and Nicholas wake to find Nemo sitting on the bed with a platter full of food and two mugs of what appears to be tea.

After they’ve eaten Nemo smiles tentatively at the other two and gives a light on explanation but big on emotion apology, the end result of that being a delay in getting out of bed due to cuddling. They make plans to build the Cyclops - it’s time to try going deeper to see what else they can find - there’s a facility out there with information and even though its not pinging on their radar they’re pretty sure it lies within the cave systems marked by the green heavy water.

It takes a while to build all the bits - the little robots are working at greater than usual efficiency which gets Hikari an appreciative hug, but eventually they have a working Cyclops. The sun is lower in the sky so they decide to delay their departure by another day - taking the extra time to set up a bunk, food and water supplies, a recharge for the power cells and ensuring they’ll have enough storage. Nemo builds a level 3 engine efficiency modifier, while Nicholas swims out briefly, returning with all the necessary materials for a shield generator. Nemo comes over while he’s setting it up and leans against his shoulder, watching what he’s doing. “Awesome. Shields will likely come in handy.”  
“As would decoys we’ve got room enough for a couple.”  
“Shall I build them?”  
“Yeah - maybe see if Hikari has any ideas - you said the big predator was using echolocation?”  
“It was - oh, yeah maybe between Hikari and I we can come up with a way to make the decoy loud and confusing. I’ll go ask.”

Nemo finds Hikari and they spend a few hours pulling apart a decoy and reconstructing it in various ways, eventually settling on a small system that will add a soundwave that should shriek even underwater. Nicholas had taken one look at all the parts spread out over the table and surrounds and retreated to double check the supplies on the Cyclops - as he’d won the round-robin rock-paper-scissors, he got to pick the name and had decided to go with a classic “Nobody”. As they were still going at it when he returned he decided to make dinner and left to catch some boomerangs.

The ladies pack up their work when he returns - they’ve made good progress and will finish it in the morning as they all agreed to try and make after dinner time free to relax and unwind because they’re not automatons despite what Alterra would have the galaxy believe. So they eat the boomerangs and then have another signing lesson - Hikari’s becoming quite fluent and Nicholas while frustrated by the nuance feels confident enough that he could communicate with the others. Nemo is a patient teacher - and her gentle encouragement makes the others smile.

They finish the night with a storytelling game, all in good fun and as a thought exercise it’s immensely enjoyable. Nemo isn’t sleepy but goes along with it when she’s pulled to her feet and to the bedroom. She finds herself in the middle of the bed, Hikari’s head on her shoulder and Nicholas’ arm reaching across her waist, to hold Hikari’s hand. They drift off to sleep fast and Nemo lies there listening to the soft breathing, dropping into her own quiet meditation - as close to sleep as she gets unless she’s truly exhausted.

It’s early when Nemo comes back to awareness - her internal clock says it’s about two hours before dawn, carefully she disentangles herself from her bedmates, chuckling softly to herself at how they immediately roll into the space she left. By the time the sun’s light wakes the others Nemo’s finished reassembling the creature decoys and is writing checklists humming a tune that carries to the bedroom - it’s not one either of the others recognise but its pleasant even if both of them would have preferred her to still be in bed with them.

One final check and then the three of them board the Nobody. Nicholas takes first turn at the wheel, Hikari’s on navigation and Nemo’s got all of the cameras on a screen watching to make sure they don’t bump into anything. The Cyclops even on its lowest power cuts through the water faster than their seamoths. On Hikari’s suggestion they’re going to cut around the potential entrance to the underwater caves and see if they can find more of the corundum crystals, lithium and such things because they’ve run low on them.

As they go deeper - far enough that the surface can’t be seen they come across what looks like a well worn path weaving along a steep cliff face. Red and blue crystals glint in the lights of the Cyclops so they shut down the engines and head out to explore. It’s Nemo who sees the Sea Treaders first - they intrigue her, and the one thing Nemo does very much appreciate about this planet is that the fauna is so gorgeous. She gains the attention of the others and they swim over, watching the Treaders walk, and how the stones crack in their wake - Hikari is the one who dives down first, and grabs the broken pieces of ground - dusting them off reveals the oily silver of lithium. They spend at least an hour among the Sea Treaders grabbing resources and enjoying watching them - there are babies and they are adorable!

Eventually they start up the Nobody once more and head back towards the entrance to the cave where the strange heavy water runs green.


	9. Kharaa or Bacterium Stupidius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Answers to some pressing questions

There’s a strange beauty to the illumination of this system. There’s lights - potentially made by the alien species who built the QEP. The heavy-water river flows slowly along and it’s just. Stunning, in a way that Nemo’s rarely seen. They pause the engines and lock the sub into place - checking each others tanks because they’re far away from any air supply. Diving into the quiet of the biome feels amazing, Nicholas signs for them to explore the lights to the left of the sub, and there’s a large skull which Hikari immediately swims towards to scan.

Nemo heads down to the river and immediately detects a problem. She turns around and signs large - gaining the attention of the others. Once she has it she explains that the river is dangerous - potentially acidic. They nod, and Hikari swims over to scan the lights next to Nemo - Nicholas’ attention is drawn higher, he swims up and then comes back, tugging on Nemo’s arm excitedly. Together they swim up to where a light-ray shield shines bright, illuminating the stand for a keycard next to it. Nemo reaches into her pack and pulls out a purple keycard, slotting it into the holder.

The beams fade but a staticky barrier remains - Nemo pushes through it and drops down - pulling off her mask, she waves the others in carefully “That barrier - there’s no water in here,” she tells them, stating the obvious. Hikari pulls her mask, setting the oxygen tank to cycle and refill. “That’s incredible, I wonder how they did it…” The gather the data packets and scan the fossils, before returning to the sub and heading deeper into the river biome - on the way Nemo grabbed some nickel ores, and some sulphur crystals - knowing that nickel was often involved in the low-depth modules.

There were even more fossils, large ones further into the river system.  
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT” shouted Nicholas  
Nemo looked up from her mapping to see a ghostly translucent levithan attempting to ram their sub. “It looks like a ghost”  
“A ghost?” asked Hikari, even as she ran to deploy the sound-wave decoy  
Nemo grabbed her repair tool out, fixing the damage from the inside “Yes. Outside the caldera that this whole ecosystem exists in there’s a steep drop off and ghostly creatures like that one except maybe 3 times the size. I managed to scan one.”  
“You mean to tell me that’s a JUVENILE?! Fuck.” Nicholas’ hands remained steady even though his heart was racing. When the decoy was successful at distracting the Ghost, he piloted the sub deeper and then turned off into a secondary branch as there were more alien-tech lights. 

The sunken ruin of a facility appeared before them, and all three went out to explore. Hikari used the repulsion cannon to punt a warper out of their way. There were more keycards and ion crystals to pick up as well as a lot of information, the Precursors - idiots Nemo thinks, had stolen a sea dragon leviathan egg and the mother had attacked the facility causing the bacteria to be released, and the facility destroyed. They also discover that the warpers are a rather sinister mix of machine and animal species - the native animal must be extinct as only the warpers exist. They are a mobile QEP - programmed to destroy those infected with Kharaa. 

The three are nearly done when all of their PDAs beep, asking for a self-scan. When they do so, green pustules begin to bubble up beneath their skin, Nemo watches it with a detached fascination - this is the beginning of stage two of the stupidius infection and she is not having it. “Give me your hands,” it’s a demand, an order borne of love and fear and desperation. Nicholas and Hikari both do, though it hurts where the green blisters touch. Nemo takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and focuses on that plane where she becomes nearly one with the universe. She can see in this place the way the Kharaa spreads, the advancement of the disease and she reaches with all the power that her years grant her, dropping deep into the flow of magic and soul. 

She breaks the cycle back to stage one, a present threat but contained without physical symptoms. And she draws on deeper power, burning more and more of herself to lock it there - to buy them the time they will need to find their answers. If it had been just herself she may have been able to rid herself of the disease altogether but she does not cast blame, or regret what might have been, just does what she can.

Nemo opens her eyes, to see Nicholas and Hikari staring at her in no little awe, and she smiles at them, before blacking out. The others catch her before she drops, and decide that it would be best to head back to the base instead of remaining in the deeps. Between the two of them they manage to get the unconscious Nemo back to the Nobody. Getting back past the ghost is trickier without a third set of eyes but the creature decoy works well enough, and they head up out of the grand reef towards sunlight.

Two full days pass without Nemo stirring at all beyond the gentle rise and fall of her chest that reassures Hikari and Nicholas that she lives. This is beyond their skill - driven by the desperate need to do something Nicholas ventures into the Dunes where the leviathan nests are. He finds a wreck that holds a drill arm for the prawn suit, and returns to Hikari unharmed. She sympathises - her worry drives her to crafting plans and theorems. They build a prawn suit together, remind each other to eat and spend the night holding onto Nemo hoping that she wakes.

When Nemo wakes on the afternoon of the third day, it’s to the concerned eyes of her friends - she coughs, throat dry and aching which spurs Hikari into action, she returns with a bottle of water, Nicholas assists Nemo to sit and steadies her as she drinks. “Sorry,” she whispers having devoured the bottle of water.  
“What did you do Nemo? The blisters on our hands vanished and then you’ve been asleep for nearly 3 days…”  
Nemo leans against Nicholas and takes Hikari’s hand in hers, “I undid the progression of the disease. It’s now stuck in a loop where it won’t progress past the first phase - we’ll still have to find a cure to get off planet but this gives us time.”  
“And the collapse?” Nicholas’ voice holds a fine tremor,   
“The ability to change how a bacterial species works isn’t without cost - and this planet, it’s immensely draining to do even simple things,” she levitates a plush dragon they’d found in a strange capsule briefly, “but I was willing to do whatever it takes to ensure we’d all be alright.”

That night Nemo has somehow ended up in between Hikari and Nicholas - and when she goes to move out, thinking that they're asleep Nicholas' arm tightens around her and she glances over to see his silver eyes reflecting the pale moonlight that makes it through their window. She tilts her head in inquiry, and he tugs her down so their heads are close together. "You scared the daylights out of me, and I.. I don't know whether we'll live or die. Or if Hikari will take you and maybe me up on the offer you made, but right now, Nemo, I want to kiss you." Nemo will never admit that she squeaked a little in surprise before warm lips brushed over hers. As far as kisses went this one held a lot of promise. She was returning the kiss, with interest when she became aware of Hikari's eyes on them. Breaking off the kiss Nemo lifted her head, a question dancing in her purple eyes and Hikari's soft huff of laughter as she leant in for a kiss of her own was all the answer Nemo needed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trading kisses back and forth  
> It’s as simple as letting go, to  
> Touch and explore and learn  
> With the understanding that  
> No will stop everything, that  
> This is about love, about forgetting  
> That we are living every moment  
> With indescribable loss, with the  
> Ticking clock but here, in the warm  
> In the dark there’s quiet reverence  
> And flooding sensations to get lost  
> In, the way you hands hold different  
> Callouses from the different lives led  
> The slight burn of a beard, the soft  
> Press of lips, and the taste of you  
> The contrasts between the warm  
> Spice and hot-sweet, that you can  
> See all the scars and show your own  
> Knowing that we will be gentle -  
> And we will be proud because we  
> Are survivors, all three of us and  
> We love with proud defiance until dawn


	10. Away from the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> down they go, into the depths once more to see if they can find a solution

They have time.

Suddenly, they have time and none of them are in a hurry to return down to the fossilised river though they know that they must. But the cuddlefish and jellyrays have hatched and can be played with, there’s sunlight and the quiet peace of gentle waves. And there’s this thing that’s growing between the three of them, tangling them up and love seems like such a paltry word for it but love is what it is. And while they have time they make the most of it, taking joy where they can.

 

Without the ticking time bomb of Kharaa it becomes easier to create a more workable plan - two people will take it in turns to go and begin a base building down in the Lost River with the third person taking in sunlight and doing the gathering/maintenance. They finally work out how to track day and night while deep underwater and decide that it should be two days underwater before surfacing for one day and then swapping out one person for the next two days.

After preparing the Nobody with more supplies and one of the prawn suits the three compete in a tournament of games to decide who stays behind. The battle is mock-vicious but in the end it’s Nemo and Hikari who are going down - Nicholas takes stock of what they have and promises to find more of the titanium and other such things. Nemo asks if he would take his seamoth and find the Sea Treaders again as the lithium will be necessary for reinforcing the base due to depth. He agrees and waves them farewell as the two ladies swim out to where the Nobody is parked outside the base.

They sneak past the ghost just fine this time and continue piloting down the river rather than turning down the side path that led to the facility. The colour of the water around them changes from misty green to a deep illuminated blue - something is giving off a bright light.

Then they see it. A tree, with gorgeous pink flowers and eggs - eggs that contain tiny one-day Ghost Leviathans. They park the sub and swim out investigating - unlike the upper river the only creatures present here are the large ghostly rays and thin spinefish. It’s eerie and beautiful and Hikari and Nemo in one accord begin to build a base - with an observatory that allows for the full beauty of the tree to be enjoyed. 

There’s a couple of heat vents close by so Nemo hooks up some power to them - this base is only meant to be semi-permanent so it doesn’t really need much in the way of power - the moonpools to charge the prawn suits will drain a bit - but with the blood kelp pods they grabbed on the way down and the gel sacs scattered around the place they’ll be able to grow enough things to add a bioreactor if they need one.

 

After setting up the main rooms with the growbeds for bulbo trees and melons/potatoes as well as storage and a small aquarium with a few edible fish that they’ll release to see if they breed locally Hikari goes to bed. Nemo stays up as there’s plenty of work to be done, crystals to be gathered - the crystalline sulphur and corundum begin to fill the cupboards of the Nobody that previously held glass and titanium. The glow of the ghost-tree is soothing, its odd beauty like nothing Nemo had ever seen. As she’s alone, she takes off the weighty tank of oxygen, creating a small bubble around her mouth to breathe and then just allows herself time to sit in the boughs of the tree singing lullabies to the tiny leviathans that will one day roam free.

Over the next day they have together in this peaceful realm the two women get a lot done - a bit of swimming has shown a path down - a waterfall within the ocean to where magma bubbled and burst in showers of sparks, but for now they’ve decided to wait on investigating in favour of settling the base more strongly - a full exploration of the area, without clear guides back could take days and they’re due to return to the surface to switch out with Nicholas.

Nemo and Hikari leave the as yet unnamed prawn suit in the moonpool and prepare to head back up to the surface. Hikari tells Nemo that she’ll be returning with Nicholas because Nemo didn’t actually sleep at all. Laughingly, Nemo agrees - it’s been so long since people have been so honestly concerned with her well-being and it’s a nice feeling.

The return is simple - they are not bothered by the ghost and make it back to the habitat as the light fades from the sky. The night is really quite beautiful on this odd planet. Nicholas is glad to see them both, greeting them with tight hugs and glad kisses. The stars ease something in Nemo that she hadn’t realised was tense and make it simple enough to climb into bed with her lovers. 

They spend the next day together as planned - talking and relaxing, the only work they do is get the second prawn suit situated in the Nobody. Nemo teaches the cuddlefish how to give high-fives and its adorable, she’s already trying to plan ways that she could have one as a pet - alas that Vidas lacks any kind of large watery body, it’d probably be unfair to keep such a creature in a tank, even one like the alien containment facility.

After a peaceful night Hikari and Nicholas head down into the deeps - Nemo goes to the islands and spends her time there, even as the daylight turns to moonlight, the fluorescent plants give off more than enough light to walk by. At the tree-base Nicholas is impressed with the setup and adds on a few more things he things they might need while Hikari builds prawn suit arms and tinkers to make them more efficient. (and if they spend some time sitting in the observatory making out in the shade of the tree well that’s their own business).

Several more back and forths and the trio agree the time has come to take a deeper dive to the Tree-Base, so that they can explore the lava zone - there’s another alien facility in there somewhere and they are determined to find it, hoping for more clues on how to deal with the Kharaa.


	11. The Dragon and The Lady

It’s Nemo who sees it first - Nemo who gets out of her prawn suit, and catches a fireball in her hands - they’re still underwater but there’s fire in her hands. And when the Sea Dragon roars to the surprise of the two still safely in their suits Nemo roars back. The roaring goes on and then the dragon turns and swims a bit away, waiting for them to follow.

Nemo hops back into her prawn suit and onto the comms to deal with the fallout. “Can it wait?” she asks quietly, “Thi’lena has offered to lead us to a door made by the Precursors.”  
“It can wait.” Hikari replies; echoed by Nicholas. The three of them follow the Dragon to a doorway in the side of a mountain of cooled magma. Once the others have passed through the door Nemo once again hops out of her prawn suit and calls a farewell and thanks to Thil’ena - who comes in close enough to touch. Nemo strokes along the delicate scales and then follow her lovers into the bowels of the mountain.

It’s not that far into the cave systems when they come across the Thermal Plant - in much better condition that the Disease Research Facility - probably due to the more protected location and the you know, not kidnapping sea dragon eggs for their research. They spread out once inside, Hikari uses the drill arm to break up a cluster of ion crystals into useable parts, Nicholas gathers the data and Nemo, Nemo walks fearless between the sparking power lines tracing them and listening for something the others cannot hear. There had not been contact from that voice who tried to reach them on the Aurora since, but here - in the heart of the powerplant Nemo calls out searching for them.

They answer; an old old presence fills her vision - with glowing blue eyes and a shape similar to that of the other leviathans - and Nemo sinks to the floor. Lost in the timeless communication between them, she doesn’t notice that Hikari and Nicholas have left until she returns to herself to find only her prawn suit parked at the entrance. She sighs, dejected at this sign of rejection but determines to head back to the Tree-Base and have it out with them. There’s power enough here that she could, with difficulty but not impossibility, open a doorway back to Vidas. Hikari and Nicholas have enough knowledge between them that they’ll be able to get themselves off-planet and Nemo, no matter what happens will ensure that they have enough funds to pay off their bills and then some.

It still hurts to see that they’ve rearranged the bedrooms in the base - Nemo can take a hint. She writes out the notes she gained from her communication and then makes the final prawn suit depth upgrade, leaving two behind for the sleeping pair, she takes herself back down into the depths. Thil’ena is pleased to see her and Nemo wonders briefly if her own form would survive underwater. For a while they play; catch and keep away and other such things - and Thil’ena is the one who shows Nemo to the sinkhole that will lead her to her final destination.

Swimming down through the hole, using the grapple hook where she needs to - mostly because the prawn suit has a storage case in which Nemo’s kept several keycards and ion crystals just in case. Nemo makes it into the fiery lake, and sees the large primary facility across from her. There’s another dragon but this one ignores her completely - perhaps something was communicated between them and Thil’ena that ensured Nemo’s safe passage across the lake.

Unlocking the facility Nemo explores - scanning everything she can, and lighting up several gates similar to the ones one the islands - where they come out is anyone’s guess, she’s not going to go through just yet. At the centre of the facility is a pool, a very deep pool Leaving aside the suit, Nemo dives into the water and there meets the Emperor. Who is at once ancient and kind but also wants to play and talk, a very lonely being (Nemo empathises) and stays for a while swimming around and talking with the Emperor, even though she can see things worth investigating at the bottom of the tank for now she ignores them

Meanwhile Nicholas and Hikari wake up to discover Nemo’s very polite (and very kind) notes, along with the prawn suit upgrades but Nemo herself is nowhere to be found. After sleeping on their emotions, both of the Aurora’s crew had decided that perhaps they had been a little hasty. After all, Nemo had healed them in a way that could only be described as magical so why shouldn’t she be able to talk to leviathans? Thus decided they hop into their prawns and head down into the depths, hoping to find where Nemo had gone to.

The Sea-Dragon is there, almost as if they had been waiting and on seeing the two Prawn suits, sends a fireball over their heads - on comms they think that the miss had been deliberate - perhaps if Nemo had talked with the creature it was fond of her and as such less inclined to be helpful to them without her presence. They then perform the same leading dance they - Thil’ena Nemo had called them - Thil’ena had done the day before and carefully the two of them navigate in Thil’ena’s wake to a large sinkhole “This probably leads to the facility Nemo mentioned” said Hikari  
“I agree - let’s go”

Navigating through the active lava zone was slow-going and treacherous but they made it safely across to the Primary Containment Facility Leaving their Prawn suits in the first large room Hikari and Nicholas begin to search for their missing partner.


	12. All That One Can Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and this is how it ends  
> thanks for coming on the ride with me

They find Nemo swimming with the Emperor - and startle when They speak. But in the end it’s not that hard to accept and so Hikari swims down to investigate the strange eggs at the bottom of the pool. Nicholas catches Nemo’s attention and signs out “Are you okay?”  
Nemo tilts her head, signing back in the affirmative before indicating they should swim down and join Hikari and the Emperor - who is explaining that these eggs hatching will release a cure for the bacterium however they will require a special mix of enzymes to activate the reaction.

The Emperor breathes, removing the piles of sand from a transport Gate - one that when tested goes to right outside the QEP. Noting the recipe in their PDAs the three survivors leave the pool and head to their prawn suits.   
“Huh.” Nemo said, a thought occurring to her  
“What’s up Nemo?” asked Hikari  
“Did the two of you see the gates in the side areas of this facility? I would bet good money that their other gates are in areas we need to travel to to collect the enzyme components.”  
“I wouldn’t take that bet, I think you’re right,” Nicholas offers “shall we split up and see?”  
“Alright - meet back here after we’ve checked them out? I’ll take the one directly on my left.”  
“I’ll take the other one on that side, Hikari?”  
The scientist smiled “I’ll take the right-side closest to the entrance, which leaves us with one extra to check…”  
“Well whoever gets back first can check that one out as well?”  
“Sounds good to me, Nemo.”  
They hop into their suits and split off to find what awaits them on the other side of the gate.

Nemo comes out into the misty green of the upper sections of the Lost River - a glance at the list as she carefully navigates down the waterfalls show that she’s here to grab the ghost weed sample. It’s pretty simple to harvest a few of those - and she recognises the Sea Crown as the pretty blue plant she’d propagated in the alien containment, so that was one more down. Her return to the gateway was a little more difficult than her trip down as a juvenile Ghost decided to attack - and unlike the Sea Dragon and the Emperor the Ghosts had never responded to Nemo’s attempts to communicate.

Hikari had discovered that she was in part of the Bulb Zone - easy enough to grab a cutting from, and the electric eels left her be. She was the first to return and took the fourth gate, finding the Eye stalk in the craggy fields she’d come out at. Her second return saw her enter the main chamber at the same time as Nemo “How goes it?”  
“Good, I got the ghost weed - and you?”  
“I found a bulb sample and an eyestalk. Grabbed a few of each kind”

“Awesome!, As for the Sea Crown - I have some of that growing at the home base, after Nicholas rejoins us we could use the Emperor’s gate to get back there quickly. And speaking of Nicholas...”

Nicholas’ distinctive yellow prawn suit emerges from his chosen tunnel, “All done, sorry it took so long I had a run in with a Reaper when I was harvesting the mushroom sample”  
“No problems,” Nemo replies and fills him in on the location of the Sea Crown.

They head back to the Home base, hitching a lift on a reefback and basking in the sunlight. Once at home, it’s quick and easy enough to make the enzymes - on consensus they decide to wait for a day before returning to the Emperor’s facility. After dinner where usually they would share a drink and conversation Nemo makes her excuses and goes to do a proper inventory - the time will soon be coming for them to leave this planet and, heartsore as she is, she’d very much like it to be as quick and easy as possible to do so once the cure is released.

She makes a checklist of the rocket components - they’re mostly set once Nemo finishes crafting enough plasteel ingots however they’ll need a shield generator module - there’s one in the Cyclops, and as one of the gates goes to the Lost River it makes more sense to grab that one than to craft a new module

After Hikari and Nicholas have gone to bed Nemo begins the process of building the launch pad and gantry. She’ll let the others help with the actual rocket but now, while she’s alone she also adds a few lines of code into the computer of the launch pad - lines of code that would allow for a launch external to the vehicle.

The next day sees the three survivors traveling back to the Emperor’s facility with the hatching enzymes in tow. They make good time and begin the initialisation. Nemo knows, knew it from when she first saw the Emperor in person, what will happen - and weeps quietly as the Emperor lays themselves down, not dead, not quite yet but it will happen soon. The young Emperors are fun, swimming around them, having fun - and producing pale pink bubbles of neutralisation enzyme. It covers Nemo’s hands and spreads up her arms and she can feel the bacteria in her system die. 

“We did it.” Nicholas’ voice is quiet and shaky. “We’re getting out of here.”  
Hikari pulls him in for a hug, “We are.”  
Nemo smiles at them, though she keeps her distance “I got started on the rocket platform last night. If I grab the shield from the Cyclops it’d be easy to leave within the next day or so.”  
Hikari and Nicholas agree to begin working on the rocket while Nemo gets the module.

Sure enough, when she returns with it hours later the rocket is three quarters complete. Once the top-most section is complete they pack the storage full of food, water, and various items from their trip. And by that evening they’re ready to go - said goodbye to the cuddlefish and all. (Nemo had added in a large amount of credits - more than double what the three of them spent, with a note bidding them farewell hidden at the back of a storage cabinet.)

The three of them go up - Nicholas first, Hikari second and Nemo last - and as she reaches the cockpit where Nicholas is strapping in as Hikari begins to flick the switches to get the systems online, she tells them “I just remembered I need to check on something downstairs.”  
“Hurry back Nemo,” replies Hikari “we’re about ready to go.”  
She gives them a quick salute, and heads down the ladder. And out of the rocket.

 

Before either of the others become aware of what she’s done, Nemo goes to the computer and initialises the launch.

She dives off the platform to avoid the massive gouts of flame and fuel. And alone she goes back to the Emperor’s enclosure, sitting with the giant until their breathing ceases. The Emperor extends a message to the two in the cockpit - confused, upset and worried, after which Nemo adds one of her own.  
“I’m sorry. Things are better this way. I will find my own way off planet. Please… please be safe and happy.”

 

There’s no answer.

Nicholas and Hikari are gone.

At least, Nemo thinks, relaxing against the Emperor’s side, at least they went together.

(Nemo waits until the Emperor is passed and the ecosystem stabilised, then uses her power to change the Gate to go back to Vidas. Nicholas and Hikari stay together, using the money Nemo left them to pay off their bills and buy their own ship.)


End file.
